Give It All Back
by cluelessclown
Summary: Eleven years after Voldemort was defeated by Dumbledore, Harry is just about to start his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His family and friends will all be there to say goodbye – including uncle Sirius, his two whimpering sisters and his parents. Title inspired by the song "Give It All Back" by Noah and the Whale. AU, one-shot.


**Give It All Back**

...

_It's time to begin, isn't it? I get a little bit bigger but then I'll admit I'm just the same as I was. Now don't you understand I'm never changing who I am?_

**Imagine Dragons (It's Time)**

...

"You're so lucky," pouted Emma as she examined her brother's wand. "You'll get to go to Hogwarts and do magic and play with Ron and Neville all the time."

"Now, things aren't just that easy, Em," said Lily to her ten-year-old daughter. "Harry's going to have to study a lot if he wants to get good grades."

"Which I'm sure he'll get," said James, who was scooping six-year-old Charlotte in his arms. "Everyone's ready?"

The family of five nodded at once. Harry was fiddling nervously with the handle of his trunk, clutching his wand – which had been reluctantly given back to him by a moody-looking Emma – and wondering what would become of him within the next few hours. Of course, he couldn't wait to see his best friends Ron and Neville and to get to Hogwarts and try all of the delicious food his Dad had told him about – but he couldn't help but think he would greatly miss his parents and sisters, too.

"Mum, are we going to Apparate to the station?" asked Harry then.

"Not today, sweetie," answered Lily. She knew that Harry loved the fuzzy feeling after Apparating, but the Healers at St. Mungo's had strictly told her not to Apparate during pregnancy. She patted her growing belly gently and smiled at her eleven-year-old son. "You don't want little Simon to get hurt, do you?"

Harry nodded quickly. He was ecstatic about his new brother, and by no means wanted the little thing to get hurt. True, his two sisters were nice – although Em could be a bit boring at times with her thick reading books and Lottie often got him on his nerves when she started running around the house with her small Quidditch broom – but he felt simply thrilled about having a little brother of his own. His friend Ron had five older brothers, and although he sometimes said they were a total nag, Harry still felt like having a little brother would be the best thing in the world.

The five Potters walked out to the front porch of their house. Godric's Hollow's wizarding families were all leaving their houses that day, the first of September. Kids and teenagers from eleven to seventeen years old bit their nails and chatted anxiously with their friends, parents or siblings, thrilled about the new school year. The muggles didn't notice any of this, of course. They just thought their slightly weird neighbours were all going to a gathering of some sort – not that they would have ever imagined half of what happened in the Wizarding World, anyway.

"Let's take the car," said James.

The family car was a small Ford Festiva James had acquired on 1990 after he was named Head of the Auror Office at thirty years of age. They barely used it – who would when Apparating is a million times quicker and more efficient? – but it was actually coming handy ever since they found out that Lily was pregnant.

After a relatively short time – of course, James had magicked the car to make it go faster and to avoid muggle cars at all times – the Potters arrived to London, which was as crammed with people as always. They parked the car next to King's Cross, and when Harry hopped off the car he couldn't help but feel an immense feeling of awe running through his body.

"It's nice, isn't it?" asked James, as he scooped Lottie up to his shoulders.

"It's...it's amazing," said Harry breathlessly.

James and Lily smiled at each other. The family of five walked into the station, which was crammed with wizarding families walking up to Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

"Frank and Alice and Molly and Arthur should be here anytime," informed Lily then.

"Will uncle Sirius and auntie Marlene be coming, Mum?" asked Lottie then.

"And what about uncle Remus and auntie Dorcas, Daddy?" asked Emma.

"Auntie Doe's child will be coming soon, so the Healers have instructed her not to move around too much," said Lily.

"And of course, Moony being such a lovely saint, he wouldn't even dream of leaving her side for a few minutes just to see his goddaughter and the rest of his best friends' children," chuckled James. He was quickly hit on the back of his head by Lily, and laughed. "Only joking, love."

Lily's lips curled up into a smile. She watched how her husband and eldest son disappeared through the barrier, and then looked at her two little daughters with a smile.

"Shall we?" she asked. She hadn't walked into Platform Nine and Three Quarters for fourteen years now. It was sweet to think she was doing it again with her three children, soon to be four.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" chorused the two girls, each of them clasping one of their mother's hands in theirs.

When Lily was about to start running towards the barrier with the two girls, she was stopped by a voice behind her.

"How are my favourite redheads doing?"

The three of them turned around to find Sirius and Marlene standing behind them. Sirius enveloped the two girls into a bear hug as Marlene smiled sweetly towards them. She had a rather big, swollen belly just as Lily's, if not a bit more developed than the latter's. They had seen each other two days ago, and still the two Potter girls felt thrilled whenever they saw their uncle Sirius. Uncle Sirius was, from their point of view, the funniest doggy in the world.

"Frank said you'd meet over here," explained Marlene. "So we thought we'd come over to say goodbye to our little godson!"

Lily nodded. She laughed when Sirius scooped both girls into his arms and dashed straight into the barrier, disappearing behind it. She knew he loved the three Potter children with all of his heart, despite the fact that he would become a father a few months later.

"He's just dying to say goodbye to little Harry," explained Marlene with a soft laugh. "He barely slept yesterday, thinking about how his little godson would do at school."

Lily laughed. "Well, James was up all night checking Harry's things and wondering if he would get sorted into Gryffindor. Of course, we've never pressed him on the subject – I've always thought he would make a brilliant Ravenclaw, but James says he's just like us so he'd better get sorted into Gryffindor. You know he's just like that."

Marlene nodded. Said this, the two women decided to walk into the platform together. When they arrived, they found James and Arthur Weasley chatting about the Ministry, while Sirius seemed to be giving Harry and Ron a lecture of some sort. Emma and Ginny were trading Chocolate Frog cards, whilst Fred and George buzzed around everyone else, Percy and Molly failing to calm them down.

"Don't be sad, Gin!" said Fred to his little sister. "We'll send you cool stuff from school."

"Yeah, we'll send you a toilet seat!" added George cheerfully.

Ginny seemed to think this was a terribly amusing idea, as did Emma. The two girls started questioning Fred and George about the Hogwarts bathrooms, while Molly Weasley sighed exasperatedly.

"Hi, Molly," said Lily.

"Oh, good thing you're here," sighed Molly. "These two won't stay still and Sirius is telling Harry and Ron God knows what about bad Slytherins."

"I'll go talk to him," said Marlene.

And indeed, only a minute later Sirius had decided to join James and Arthur's conversation and left the two boys discussing their future Hogwarts Houses all by themselves.

A few minutes later, they saw how a family of four walked into the station. The father had a little, six-year-old girl in his arms, while the mother held her eleven-year-old son's hand tightly. The boy, who had black hair and brown eyes, resembled his mother greatly, whilst the girl looked a bit like her paternal grandmother back when she was a little girl.

"Neville!" exclaimed Harry and Ron together.

"Hi!" said Neville happily, as he dashed up to his two best friends.

"We're going to Hooooooogwarts!" chanted Ron happily, grinning at both of his friends.

The three boys started chatting happily, soon joined by Fred and George. Frank, Arthur and James took their children's trunks to the luggage wagon, while the two six-year-olds, Lottie and Emily, walked behind them with amused expressions.

"Dadda, when're Emily and I going to Hogwarts?" asked Lottie as James scooped her up again.

"Hm, I don't know," said James, tapping his chin. Then he kissed his little daughter's cheek and smiled. "It's still a while, sweetie."

"But I want to go now," pouted Lottie. "Can I?"

"Not yet sweetheart, you're too young," said James. "Besides, you wouldn't want to go without Emily, right?"

"No, not really," admitted Lottie sadly. "I guess I shall wait then."

James nodded approvingly. It was now ten to eleven, so he handed the six-year-old over to Sirius and walked over to his son in order to say goodbye. He saw that the five boys were now deep in conversation.

"You know the Lovegood girl, Luna?" asked Ron. "Charlie says she's always been a tad bit weird. Said he'd found her sitting in the middle of the forest the other day, looking for Crumple Horned Snorkacks." Fred and George nodded in agreement.

"I don't think she's weird," protested Neville quickly. His two friends looked at him curiously, which made the eleven-year-old blush and stare down at his shoes. "I mean – I've seen her a couple of times and she's really nice. Plus she's friends with Emma and Ginny, isn't she?"

Harry shrugged. "I'm sure she's nice enough, Neville."

James smiled. His son resembled his wife so much it was almost crazy. Kind-hearted, sweet and funny, and rather smart. He was nothing like James back when he was eleven years old, partly because he had tried hard not to spoil his son as his parents had when he was little.

"Hey, boys," James said then. "It's almost time to leave. You'd better go say goodbye to everyone, right?"

Neville, Ron, Fred and George left almost instantly, leaving James and Harry by themselves. James gave his eleven-year-old son a long hug and then ruffled the boy's black hair, which was identical to his.

"I'm sure you'll have a great time, son," he said. "You're going to be the best wizard in your year, and I'm sure you'll make it into the Quidditch team."

"First years are not allowed to tryout for the Quidditch team, Dad," said Harry sadly. After all those years, James knew his son had a knack for Quidditch, which he had tried to promote by taking his son to a Quidditch World Championship in Peru and playing Quidditch with him whenever he came back from work.

"We'll see about that," smirked James, winking an eye at his son.

Harry smiled, and hugged his dad one last time.

"I love you, Daddy," said Harry.

James smiled at this, and watched how his son now said goodbye to Lily, Sirius and Marlene. Lottie and Emma were both sobbing around him, hugging their older brother and refusing to let go. Lily wouldn't stop kissing Harry's cheeks as she told him to behave, eat properly and not to try to resemble his father and uncles in any way.

"Oi!" said Sirius indignantly. "We had perfectly decent grades and everyone in our year liked us – " Marlene and Lily snorted together. " – most of the time, anyway."

Harry laughed and hugged his uncle Sirius.

"Don't listen to your Mum," said the man. "Never behave, and do resemble your father and I at all time. But yeah, you should probably start eat properly. After all, you need proteins for your brain to start tracing new pranks and ideas!"

Harry nodded happily, to which both Lily and Marlene sighed. They both knew Harry would behave...but they somehow knew that he would end up getting in trouble more than he should.

The train's chimney whistled loudly. Suddenly everyone knew that it was time to hop onto the train and say goodbye to their parents and siblings until Christmas break. Harry waved at his family and friends for one last time before hopping in behind Ron and Neville, who were already looking for an empty compartment with the help of Fred and George. Emily, Charlotte, Emma and Ginny waved at them happily, while Alice cried into Frank's arm, torn between the happiness and the sadness of seeing her little boy leaving her for the first time. Molly was sneezing into her handkerchief, with Arthur patting her back. Even after all those years seeing her children leave, she still hadn't gotten used to the feeling of sadness that came along with the first day of September.

The Hogwarts Express wheeled loudly, and started to move away from King's Cross. Children bade their last goodbyes to their families, grinning excitedly at the adventures which lay in front of them, and the marvelous school awaiting for them.

James noticed how the first tears slid down Lily's cheeks. He pulled her into a hug and kissed her temple.

"You'll see," he said. "He will have so much fun at school."

"He's grown so much," whispered Lily. "It seems like it was only yesterday when he crawled around our house, calling you Doda and pulling Sirius's mustache."

James smiled. Indeed, it seemed like it had been only yesterday when the two of them were seventeen and somehow ended up falling in love with each other. It seemed like only yesterday when they had gotten married and had Harry, too. It seemed like it had been only yesterday when Voldemort was defeated by Dumbledore, and yet it had already been eleven years since peace had been announced after Voldemort's definitive defeat, when the Auror Office had finished eliminating all of the Dark Lord's horcruxes after an unknown Death Eater tipped them off about them. It felt so strange to think eleven years had gone by already, and yet it was true. Sure, it seemed to have been only the day before when everything had happened – and yet, tomorrow was a big adventure, which was still to unfold in front of them.

James and Lily had been through enough things for a lifetime. Now the only thing they wanted to do was to grow old together and to be happy. Although, in the end, they had been happy all along.

As the Hogwarts Express blended into the English countryside, James thought of Albus Dumbledore's words back when the war ended. _Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light_. Only then did he realize that back in those days when they had gone into hiding, Lily and Harry were the lights that kept James sane all along.

"I love you," he whispered into Lily's ear then.

She smiled. "How come that?"

James shrugged. "Just letting you know." And so he pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

"Ew, Dad, Mum!" exclaimed Lottie then, a disgusted expression on her face. "Don't do that in public, will you?"

James and Lily laughed. The man scooped his youngest daughter into his arms, whilst Emma grabbed her mother's hand.

"Daddy, will Harry be all right?" asked Lottie as the four of them made their way out of Platform Nine and Three Quarters."

"I'm sure he will, sweetie," said James.

And for once, James knew he was completely right.

...

**A/N**: Hope you enjoyed it! I wrote this in about an hour, so excuse me if it's not perfect...I've been sick for two days now and I _had_ to type something just for the sake of my mental sanity, hahah.

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